Death Threats to Author Questioning Islam Origins

A best-selling author questioning the origins of Islam in a new book has received death threats on the Twitter social networking website.

Chana Ya'ar, 02/06/12 23:40

Islam on the Internet?

Reuters

A best-selling author questioning the origins of Islam in a new book has received death threats on the Twitter social networking website.

Robert Spencer, director of the website “Jihad Watch,” questioned the source of Islam in a new book, “Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry into the Obscure Origins of Islam,” published by ISI Books. Spencer is also the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), The Truth about Muhammad (both New York Times best-sellers) and is a columnist for FrontPage Magazine.

But upon publication of his latest book, which theorized that the founder and prophet of Islam, Muhammad, did not really exist, Spencer was threatened with a violent death.

The threat of beheadings and stabbings was sent on May 30 to the author via Twitter by an Australian Muslim whose ID was 'abdulhakim'.

The potential attacker, whose Twitter handle is @83_amira sent a tweet that stated: “1,200 of your books were burnt in Australia yesterday by me Cause you a liar, lucky you are miles &miles away.” A second threat sent was “slandering the prophet is not freedom of speech you dog, scumbag. I would not slash u, but cut you head off and hang it on the White House.”

Several more threats from the same Twitter account were also sent, calling for killing David Wood, a blogger and Teaching Fellow in Philosophy, as well as blogger Pamela Geller who writes on the "Atlas Shrugs" website. The threat to Geller stated, “she needs to be hung or slaughtered because of her hatred.”

The following day tweets from “Adam' whose handle is @allahuakbar12 added fuel to the fire, saying “Its your fault you brought it upon yourself.” Another tweet in favor of violence followed from @frigidfire23, writing “That man would do humanity a great favor!Maybe he should pay you a visit too.World would be a much better place without u2!”